The French Public Health Agency (SPF) has indicated that nearly 33,000 deaths in France are attributable to heat between 2014 and 2022, including 23,000 deaths of people aged 75 and over.
In its new report, published this Friday, the SPF specifies that among the deaths, 28% were observed during heat waves as defined by the heat wave management plan, while they represent only 6% of the days studied. .
The impact of heat is not limited to the most extreme periods, whereas the exposure of the population to heat outside periods of heat waves, associated with a lower but more frequent risk, contributes more to the impact total than extreme heat associated with a higher but rarer risk, the report further explains.
And to note that between 1,000 and 7,000 deaths are attributable to heat each year, depending on the meteorological context, noting that these estimates of deaths attributable to heat supplement the heat wave balance sheets which estimate the excess of deaths from all causes during periods of heat wave.
According to SPF, about two thirds of the impact mainly concerns people aged 75 and over, but it should be noted that a significant part (i.e. one third) concerns people under 75 years of age.